Still dropping…

I’l be honest, while I expected there was a chance I’d get to my target weight I probably wouldn’t have said I had a lock on it. I was really just hoping I’d get near it. Well, I’m near it.

Of course now that I’m here I’m faced with the challenge of what to do besides brag about it and become insufferable. I mean we all like to hear a success story (though, and sadly I suppose, we like failures as well), but enough is enough, right?
It would seem I have to set a new goal. Yes, I’m very pleased with ‘under 200’ but ya know…I’ve still got got a bit of a roll around the middle and my BMI isn’t yet quite in the ‘normal’ range, so…
New Target: 185
I’ve given myself till the end of June (the 25th to be exact) to get there. Why did I pick that date? That’s the day I next see my physician for a regular checkup including blood work analysis. I’m quite interested to see the numbers for cholesterol and triglycerides, my A1C sugar levels, and the rest. Mostly, and it’s not a credit to me, I want to see his face when I weigh in at 185.
This week has been a minor revelation for me as I seem to be taking it off faster than before with less trouble. I’m not really eating a lot less, but I’m eating differently.
I’ve been practicing intermittent fasting lately. I’ve done a couple of 24 hours fasts (with coffee) in the past couple of weeks and find they aren’t something I’m likely to do regularly. Basically I’ve gone without food from dinner to dinner, ending the fast with a biggish, though not huge, meal. I had no problem.
Still it’s not exactly user friendly for me as I do like a treat.
Instead I’ve gone most of this week using a six hour window for eating: still with coffee. I’ve been getting up in the morning (4:30 AM) and making my buttery good coffee (one serving). It weighs in at a couple of hundred calories of butter, coconut oil, organic coffee, and a dash of heavy whipping cream. Yes it’s got calories, mostly fat.
I do have a couple more cups of coffee in the morning, one at work when I get there (brought with me) and another I purchase around 9 AM when I take a mile walk. Neither of these have butter or coconut oi and have just a wee bit of cream. So no, I’m not completely calorie free, but there’s not much there.
After work, around 2 – 3 PM I’ve been taking a longer bike ride home, perhaps 8 to 10 miles. When I get home it’s time for a bit to eat. Lately this has been an hard boiled egg, a bit of cheese, a few olives, and if I feel especially hungry, a cup of Greek yogurt. Generally I don’t have all of these.
That’s about 3 PM or 4PM. As I generally have stuff to do in the evening, often involving friends, I can be found out and about, often eating together. This week has been heavy on the Whole Foods salad bar where last night to my chagrin, I found that my eyes were bigger than my stomach and I’d made a salad that was just a bit too big; mostly dark greens, kale, mesclun (yum), and so forth, a couple of hard boiled eggs, an ounce of tombo (tuna), some kim chee (hot pickled cabbage or whatevah), and a dab of this and that.

Then I really don’t eat again till I get home and maybe, but not for sure, have another cup of Greek yogurt fixed up as dessert.
I haven’t had any trouble eating this way this week. I’m not totally rigorous about it, that is to say, I’m not clocking it to the minute. As I said, I’m working with a 6 hour window and if it becomes a 6.5 hour window no big deal.
I’m very interested to see what the affect of all this is on my bicycling in the JBK Haleiwa Metric Century this weekend. A few weeks ago I did about 150 miles of cycling on my Hunqapillar but was loaded down with camping gear. This time I’ll be on my Quickbeam and carrying very little. I did this two years ago on that bike and had a great time but really had to push myself to keep up the same speed as a friend. He won’t be with me this year, but I do have a record of that time and am wondering if I’ll beat it.
Keep in mind, all this weight loss hasn’t really made me a faster rider. It has made riding a lot easier in that I need fewer breaks and can climb hills more easily, but speed is something you need to practice and I’m really motivated along those lines. I’m a distance guy, not a speed guy – though I’ll admit that improving my speed a bit wouldn’t be a bad thing.
That’s enough for the moment, thanks for listening.
Aloha.